She was taken from her homeworld when she was just eight years old. She wanted to run but she was paralyzed with fear. With a sharp prick to the side of her neck, her sight began to fade to black. She awoke in a dark, cold cell with a metal cot. The sheets were torn and old. The pillow is as hard as a brick. She had no idea how long she was there before she escaped. She underwent many experiments. She didn't know what they were injecting into her or what they wanted with her. A year after her arrival, an experiment failed. They ordered their best soldier to kill her but he froze. He refused. She knew he got punished for refusing their order but they found it so intriguing that a man with no free will, said no to the execution of a worthless, young girl, they kept her alive to observe the interaction between them. Whenever they thought their soldier was getting too comfortable and free, they wiped him again.

Now she's running...

13th December 2004

Scared. She was absolutely terrified. She ran as fast as her legs would go. Tired and hungry with nowhere to go. She escaped nine days ago and had been on the run ever since. She had no idea where she was. What planet she was on. Therefore she had no way to get home. Her paranoia was sky-high. Looking sharply in every direction making sure she wasn't being followed. The sound of her quick, small footsteps on the gravel below as she weaved through the maze of people and buildings. The rain hammering down on her skin, mud had splattered over her pants. Her brown hair tangled and greasy. The rain was the closest thing she had to a shower in what felt like months. Her head tilted upwards to scan the people she passed by. Her eyes beginning to water as she thought about what would happen to her if she were caught again.

She had to rest. Her legs were growing week. Tears falling down her small face. She steadied her breath trying not to panic. She began to think about her mother and her father, he wasn't really her father. But as far as she was concerned, he was. She never knew her biological father. For reasons still unknown to her, they split up two months before she was born. Thoughts of her family bounced around her head as she scanned the crowd around her.

Fear seized the breath from her mouth when she spotted a group of men dressed in black, searching the crowd. She recognized one of them. Roland Bronson. The color drained on her face. The evil and vile man led the small group through the crowd. Their attire so recognizable, they stood out in the sea of people. His sadistic smirk etched on his face, exactly the same one he wore when he came to collect her and take her to the room with the chair with leather straps. She wasn't going back. She couldn't.

She didn't escape on her own. She had help. A man she had befriended, helped her escape. The soldier who refused to execute her. Afterward, he watched over her during her stay in that dark base. He was very protective of her. Making sure they never harmed her on his watch. Every now and then he'd disappear for a few weeks at a time some times longer. Sometimes he'd come back injured. He never told her how it happened. He didn't speak often, it was like he was afraid of something. Or someone.

She didn't want to leave him. But he said she had to. After all her experiments had seemingly failed to have any effect on her, they didn't have a use for her anymore. She became a liability, one they couldn't afford. The day she escaped was the day she should have died. The day they were going to "dispose" of her.

She had to run. She pushed herself off of the wall she was leaning against and began sprinting away. She was at a disadvantage. She didn't know this place. She knew of nowhere she could hide or no one to run to.

The group of men spotted the girl sprinting through the crowd and immediately trailed after her. She ran, quiet squeals slipping from her lips as she did. She made a quick turn around the corner in the hope of losing them. The men temporarily lost track of her until Roland saw the red of her jacket in the corner of his eye, "That way!" he ordered his men as he ran in her direction. His men quickly followed after him.

The girl's footsteps became sloppy as her legs began to tire again. She turned another corner, sparing a glance behind her until she ran into what she thought was a wall. She fell backward onto the floor and looked up at what she had run into. Her eyes trailed up a long, black trench coat until they landed on the face of a man with an eye patch on his left eye.

He looked down at her. He quickly noticed how skinny and sickly she looked. He held out his hand to her, "You can trust me." He spoke to her. She was still so scared. He didn't look evil, not like the guys chasing her. She heard shouting and looked over her shoulder and saw the men running up to her. She quickly crawled between the man's legs and stood up clutching his arm in fear. They braked to a stop and looked at the man, he looked back at them, "Can I help you, gentlemen?"

Roland smirked and pointed to the girl, "She belongs to us." he replied. The man in the trench coat looked down at the young girl hanging onto him for dear life.

Her voice was small as she replied to his questionable expression, "They want to kill me." Her grip tightened on his arm when she spoke the last two words.

The man looked back up at the group of men, "I think you should leave. Right now." He told them, his tone, one of warning.

Roland stepped forward, "And what if we don't?" As soon as the words had left his mouth, one of his men screeched out in pain as an arrow embedded itself in his thigh. Another man emerged from an alleyway and come to stand beside the man and the girl, startling her. He had a bow and arrow aimed at the group.

"This is my colleague. He never misses." The man warned the group, the girl kept quiet and behind the man as he spoke. The other man's stance never changed an inch. The man in the trench coat coughed and the arrow guy released another arrow, then another. He aimed another right at Roland's skull.

Roland scoffed, "Fine. You can have the worthless child. Good for nothing." He said with a laugh he turns around, his eyes still on the two men, "Let's go." He told his men as he walked away.

The guy with the arrow kept his eyes on the men as his boss turned to the young child, "What will happen to me now?" she asked him, she was wondering if they were any better than the other's she was with. Her mother always warned her about strangers but they did just save her life.

"We will take you with us, try and get you back home," the man replied, he held out his hand again, "I'm Nick Fury, Director of Shield. He is Clint also known as Hawkeye." He motioned to Clint as he introduced him. The girl took his hand and shook it, "What's your name?"

"Aryana Kale." She replied softly, she looked up at him debating whether to ask him the question she was thinking in her head, "Where am I? What planet am I on?"

"Planet?" the arrow guy asked. "Earth. Where else?" he questioned, curious as to what the girl's answer would be.

"I was born on Naboo," she replied to him quietly as if not to upset him. She received a confused glance from the man and a nod from the other.

"I know of it," he spoke up, he looked at his agent and then back at the girl, "I know someone who can get you back there."

She didn't know what to say. After all this time she was actually going home. She couldn't help but feel bad for the man she had left behind though. She would never forget him. She vowed one day she would return for him. She never knew his name, only what they called him and she didn't like it. So she changed it.

Winter Wonderland...